Synopses & Reviews
This book explores images whose sexual content has all too often been either ignored or denied.and#160; Each chapter is devoted to a place that artists associated with sexual activity or desire: the bed, the dressing area of the home, the window and doorway, the bath, and the street.and#160; By examining both canonical works, such as Jan van Eyckand#8217;s Arnolfini Portrait and Petrus Christusand#8217; Goldsmithand#8217;s Shop and long-neglected objects, such as combs, badges, and bathhouse murals, and by investigating a wide range of sexualitiesand#8212;same-sex desire, adultery, marriage, courtship, and prostitutionand#8212;Wolfthal demonstrates how illicit forms of sexuality were linked to the and#8220;chaste sexualityand#8221; of marriage.
About the Author
Diane Wolfthal is David and Caroline Minter Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Art History at Rice University.